IBM matches Power with Linux (page 2 of 2)

"Over the past decade," says Donofrio, "if we learned anything, from Java, Eclipse, and Linux and so on, it is that only through collaboration can technology become a platform for innovation-one that eliminates boundaries, and one that delivers genuine business value."

But, he adds, "We must be careful. The basic instruction set must remain tightly controlled to maintain software and application compatibility."

Similarly, Dr. Bernard Meyerson, IBM Chief Technologist, believes that an open ecosystem is key to Power Architecture's future, but at the same time control of the processor architecture must be in place to ensure against corruption of the ecosystem.

"We have to lock down the architecture so that it cannot be randomly disrupted," he told the Power Everywhere audience in March. "The common standard determines how developers will talk to each other," he adds, noting that random alternations to the core architecture along with the core instruction set can invalidate all prior intellectual property and destroy the ecosystem.

A Community Around Linux

More IBM business customers as well as partners have been turning to Power Architecture's features and functionalities via the eServer iSeries and pSeries family and eServer BladeCenter platforms.

They see real advantage in a union of power performance and strengths when combined with the flexibility of Linux. That ecosystem not only spans many types of organizations and industries but also geographies.

China, in its resolve to reduce IT dependency on foreign firms, has actively promoted the adoption of Linux as one sure path for home-grown innovations. One of its recent alliances with IBM has Power Architecture and Linux written all over it.

That alliance is with a company called Culturecom, Hong-Kong-based developers, who have made a name for themselves in the form of a CPU that is optimized for the Chinese language and intended for network PCs and handsets combined with Linux.

The significance of this innovation, says the company, is the ability to display Chinese-language text without slowing the performance of the device. Culturecom has customized Power microprocessor architecture to adapt to Chinese language characters and in turn specifically target Chinese applications.

Mr. Frank W. T. Cheung, Chairman of Culturecom, explains the importance of Culturecom's joint efforts with IBM. "Culturecom's strategic direction with the V-Dragon PowerPC, the CCG engine, and Midori Linux as China's new embedded industry standard aligns perfectly with the vision of the Power Ecosystem."

Cheung believes that, with IBM and its commitment to fostering a strong Power partner ecosystem, Culturecom is well positioned to play "a dominant role" in China's market.